Thomas Quasthoff

UCLA Performing Arts has announced its 1999-2000 season, once again featuring an eclectic mix of music, dance, film and live performance. The season kicks off on Sept. 16 with Grammy Award-winning singer Bobby McFerrin.

Predicting the classical Grammys is a psychic's work. One usually expects big names to win, but chaos theory is also at work here, and there are few sure bets. Historically, for instance, the most Grammy-ed classical musicians have been three radically dissimilar conductors--flashy Hungarian Georg Solti, revered choral master Robert Shaw and dazzling Modernist Pierre Boulez. Go figure. Boulez and the late Shaw are, in fact, in a battle for best classical album this year.

The Los Angeles Philharmonic announced Wednesday that jazz singer Dianne Reeves has been appointed to the newly created post of creative chair for jazz.

*** PROKOFIEV, GLAZUNOV Violin Concertos Nikolaj Znaider, violin; Bavarian Radio Symphony, Mariss Jansons, conductor RCA Victor First-prize winner at the 1997 Queen Elisabeth Competition in Brussels, Nikolaj Znaider brings a fervent, full and rich tone to Prokofiev's bittersweet, reluctant farewell to 19th century Romanticism. The Andante soars as Znaider ranges from almost ethereal pianissimos to strong-bodied presence.

Esa-Pekka Salonen told the crowd at the Hollywood Bowl on Thursday night that the Los Angeles Philharmonic would not be around for a while. It embarks next week on a two-week, five-stop European tour, and its music director assured the audience that he and the orchestra would do its utmost to make Los Angeles proud. There is little to worry about, given the splendid performances not only Thursday night but also those heard Tuesday and in the two programs last week.

There are ills in modern concert life. The art song recital appears to be dying for lack of listener interest. And we've lately witnessed the triumph of the sympathy vote over musical accomplishment in audiences' admiration for troubled pianist David Helfgott and blind tenor Andrea Boccelli. Now comes the antidote. Thomas Quasthoff, who sang his first song recital program in Los Angeles Thursday night at UCLA's Royce Hall, cannot help but attract audiences inspired by his plight.

CLEVELAND--With so much attention going to Simon Rattle's anticipated musical revolution in Berlin and Lorin Maazel's provocative move to New York, a new musical era in Cleveland may not seem quite so momentous.

Very late in the game, CalArts wormed its way into the Walt Disney Concert Hall. Once it had become clear that construction would begin after many years of delay and desperate fundraising, the school tossed in a mere $5 million -- less than 2% of the concert hall's budget -- and got a high-profile piece of a spectacular pie.